Felicity led the way down the stairs, and Felix could remember when the second level had been off limits, a place where children couldn’t go. Now, everything in the past seemed silly. His entire world was being made right.

At the bottom of the stairs, they rounded the landing to the hatch that opened to the tube.

Sheena, as usual, keyed in the code, and together, they undogged the watertight door. “Got to do this right,” Sheena insisted. She looked at Felicity, seemed to fix on the sides of the girl’s neck where the swellings had started to pulse. “Code is 6676. You feeling zambo?”

“Zambo,” Felicity agreed, then turned to follow Toni down the stairs.

“Zambo,” Felix chimed as he took the ax and smashed the code box that controlled the hatch. No one could lock them out. All it would take to open it would be to turn the handle.

It wouldn’t be long now.

With the com broken, the safety overrides wouldn’t work on the UB hatch lock. It would revert to manual, too.

They knew the moment Felicity entered the code to the pressurized hatch downstairs. Could hear the seawater surging into the Underwater Bay. Flooding the compartment. It came roaring as it poured through the open hatch and into the tube. A blast of air blew Felix and Sheena off their feet, tumbled them both onto their butts. The violence of it left Felix stunned and afraid. And then it was over, just as fast as it had come. The sound of water could be heard sloshing.

And the Song was joyous. It filled him, fit to burst his bones. Tears silvered his vision and spilled down his cheeks. We are free!

While Sheena was giggling like an idiot—apparently getting knocked on her butt had been fun—Felix clambered to his feet, staring down where the algae-thick water lapped and splashed on the steps down at the water line. He extended a hand, could almost feel the Song rising, becoming one with his body.

Sheena’s eyes were glittering with excitement. “This whole place, Felix! It’s ours now!”

78

At the beast’s nerve-chilling shriek, the quetzals were gone. As if they’d never existed. Dek almost fumbled as he dropped another bullet into the receiver. Around him, the forest went deathly quiet. Across the mat of squirming roots, the huge predator appeared shocked, frozen.

Dek, panting for breath, his heart pounding so hard it was fit to hammer through his sternum, pulled up the Holland & Holland. He fixed the sight, finger on the trigger.

The three sickle-like blades spread wide on the creature’s head where they had flashed closed after the first shot. With a second scream, the monster started forward, mouth wide.

This is it!

Didn’t remember triggering the gun. Barely felt the recoil, was faintly aware of the bang.